We keep our protest flag on our backstay, its velcroed on and is rolled
up and held closed with a piece of duct tape with a tab for a quick
display. Just because its there doesn't mean we are agressive about
protesting people. In fact we use it so infrequently that I went to display
it the
other day and it refused to unroll. Time to get a new one I guess :-) Its
not
there for the intimidation factor, its there to be used if needed. We don't
yell protest at anyone unless we mean to follow through but if we do protest
someone we don't want it disallowed because we didn't fly the flag
fast enough.

"Art Engel" wrote in message
...
Dennis Bartley wrote:

For what little it's worth, I sat on a hearing with an international
judge
this weekend. On the issue of timeliness of a flag, his opinion was that
if
you have to go below to get it, it's too long.

The reason to talk about this stuff is to learn and improve your
sailing - even the unpopular protest part of it.

If you have to go below to LOOK for your protest flag I doubt any
judge will think that is "first reasonable oppurtunity". It is gear
like halyards and sheets and sails and should be readily available. On
the other hand, if you store it in the chart table and need to duck
below for a couple of seconds to grab it then I think most judges
would consider it timely BUT be aware that some judges will think you
are probably pushing the limit. Serious racers keep it available on
deck.

It is definitely NOT considered unsportsmanlike to have the protest
flag on deck ready to go. Sportsmanship encourages protests to resolve
uncertainties. It is questionable whether a boat could ever be DSQed
for NOT protesting but it certainly is a theoretical possibility.
Protesting is NOT bad. My ideal fleet is one where boats protest when
appropriate, boats take penalties most of the time and so the protests
that actually go to the room are uncommon but not rare.

Art Engel
e-mail: artengel123 (at) earthlink.net
Web: http://www.racingrules.org